PSNI officer numbers 'to fall by 250 this year'

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has warned that officer numbers are projected to fall by about 250 this year and that investigations may take longer.

It is currently experiencing a £60m shortfall in its annual budget.

There are currently about 7,000 police officers, however this figure was due to increase under the New Decade, New Approach agreement.

Recruitment to the force has stalled due to the lack of an agreed budget.

The PSNI is largely funded through the Department of Justice and about 80% of the force's allocation goes towards staff operating costs.

In a statement, the department said achieving the New Decade, New Approach commitment was "largely dependent on the availability of executive funding".

It added that any decision on recruitment was "an operational matter for the chief constable".

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show, PSNI chief operating officer Pamela McCreedy said the reduction in officers this year would come about through "natural attrition".

She added, however, that new recruitment was required to fill those positions.

About 133 new and fully trained police recruits have not yet been able to be deployed due to a budgetary shortfall.

Ms McCreedy said the impact may not be felt this year, but could be more prominent if financial reductions continue.

"Potentially things like investigations will take longer and that's not good for victims or people wanting responses to their investigations," she said.

"I don't anticipate this year that we're going to be saying: 'There are areas of service that we are stopping' ".

"But ... if this budget impacts on us next year and, or, the following year, there could be a point that we would have to look at what areas of business that we cannot deliver."

Ms McCreedy added that by March 2023, police numbers may be reduced to about 6,768.

She said PSNI officials continued to make their case heard at the Department of Finance and Policing Board and she encouraged politicians to "listen, to hear and to support us".

Political stalemate over the Northern Ireland Protocol has resulted in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) blocking the formation of an executive and the appointment of a speaker at Stormont.

Without an executive, a budget cannot be agreed and without a Speaker, business at the assembly cannot take place.

The protocol is part of the Brexit deal designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Unionists have said that it creates a border in the Irish Sea which undermines Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom. They have argued that it is damaging Northern Ireland's economy.

Currently, a rollover budget is being managed by the senior official in the Department of Finance, a mechanism that has previously been used in the absence of an executive.

Justice Minister Naomi Long said it was "up to the chief constable whether he prioritises the recruitment of new members or whether he works on other projects and he has to make a judgement about that".

"I accept entirely his caution around recruiting new officers at a time when there is no certainty about next year's budget and the year after," she added.

"No one will want to increase their complement this year only to face redundancies next year."